Event Details

It's time to tour the Old Mint which some members of various meetups last visited almost three years ago. This historic building, which opened in 1874, was turned over to the City by the U.S. Treasury in 2003 and used only sporadically for private events and the occasional exhibit, while it tries to raise funds to turn it into a city history museum. See the wonderful photos of the mint down through time on the Museum homepage

This is a rare chance to view the interior while enjoying an enticing exhibition. Afterward, we cross the street to Gallery/Bar 4N5 for some for some very special green/ natural/sustainable/organic wines and munchies.

The exhibit is entitled San Francisco Style,showcasing the styles and fashions of San Francisco from the 1850s to the l970s.

Fashion is the ultimate artistic expression of individual style, and San Francisco has had an influence on the way people dress dating back to the 19th century.

Most famously, the city is known as the birthplace of blue jeans. The world’s best selling item of clothing and one of the greatest icons of modern fashion, blue jeans were invented in San Francisco by Levi Strauss in 1873. In the 1950s, the blue denim synonymous for decades with hard, honest work became a symbol of rebellious youth when sported by screen idols like James Dean and Marlon Brando. Blue jeans have since entered the high fashion vocabulary and are ubiquitous. Today jeans are part of the repertoire of haute couture houses like Armani, Valentino and Chanel.

The whimsical, irreverent attire of the Haight-Ashbury’s Flower Children in the 1960s has influenced clothing designers as diverse as Jessica McClintock and Betsey Johnson. In the late 1960s Bill Kelly, Stanley Mouse and others set up a studio in Mill Valley to produce designs expressly for T-shirts, thus putting fine art on what had previously been regarded as a merely utilitarian article of clothing. Since the ’60s the influence of San Francisco’s clothing designers has only continued to create new fashion trends: Don and Doris Fisher’s Gap, Susie and Doug Tompkins’ Esprit, Mel and Patricia Ziegler’s Banana Republic, the list goes on and on.

If there’s one thing San Francisco’s clothing designers have done collectively, it is to inspire the world to dress with imagination and to dress for comfort without ever losing a sense of style.

Because of the linkage of the Gold Rush to the Mint, and in keeping with Earth Day, we intend to feature ecofriendly wines from the Gold Country. The tasting reception and Meetup will occur in The Pickwick Hotel just across the street from the Old Mint building. Come at 2pm. Wines to be tasted are being considered for inclusion in wine.coop which you can join at the event for significant savings.

Early Bird Ticket, includes $10 admission to the exhibit plus the tasting: $25 through March 20th then goes up to $30. Discount advance payment also includes a FREE BOTTLE OF CERTIFIED ORGANIC WINE (no sulfites added) plus the $10 admission to the Mint exhibition, except for the last category which requires that the attendee to purchase their own admission.

The Old Mint
88 5th St
San Francisco,
CA 94103

Saturday, April 20, 2013 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PDT)

Organizer

Pairings is an initiative of the Bay Area Wine Society which seeks to encourage the appreciation of wine in all its many dimensions from the juice itself to viticulture and human culture. Our goal is to keep it informal and fun yet informative. Any member can coordinate a program or suggest a place to gather including our occasional tours into wine country.

Each quarter we hold a members only wine mingle that includes a walk around tasting and a blind taste off . Using the Third Party Provider program, wine.coop facilitates discounted wine sales and fulfillment by the participating wineries.

PAIRINGS offers similar services to assist other organizations with fundraising.